So lets talk business. My idea of the month has to do with Amazon Associates. If you are not familiar with Amazon Associates, it is a commission based program where you can place Amazon product ads on your blog. If anyone buys a product by clicking on your ad, you receive a commission. The commissions are higher if you place the actual product on your site, and less if someone "clicks" through you link to buy a different product.

Anyway. I am assuming most of you occasionally use Amazon.com to shop. I already have an agreement with my old traning partner from http://fitnessfromgroundzero.blogspot.com. If I am going to buy something on amazon I will use his associates account, and when he buys something he uses mine from http://thecaptainpower.blogspot.com. By using each others accounts we receive commissions.

So lets work something out: If you have blog sign up for the program, and lets trade commissions. If you use mine let me know and I will even paypal you back part of the commission.

If you are going to use amazon anyway you might as well trade commissions with a buddy, and I'm up to about $80 so far just trading with one person.

By the way, another similar idea is to sign up for refer.ly and then buy everything through links created through them. They pass on the commission to you, so you can basically refer yourself for stuff. Damn. Wish I thought of this before I went on a Rolex buying spree.

Read Next

Welcome to the 2016 Gear Post! This is my most anticipated post of the year, which means that it's the one I'm harrassed about the most. Due to popular request, I did individual photos for each item, which takes considerably longer to do. My curent backpack weight is around 10.5 pounds, and as you probably know, this is everything I take with me to 20+ countries per year. A huge thank you to the people who buy items through my Amazon links (which fund more experimentation for the next year) and to all of the companies that give me free products to evaluate.

If you are one of the many travelers who bases your own packing list off mine, consider linking to this post.

CLOTHING

My main criteria when choosing clothing is versatility. I need clothing rugged enough that I can blaze trails on the island, yet formal enough for nice dinners. For many years this balance was impossible to strike, so I opted for rugged clothes that got the job done but made me look like a confused alpinist. Now such great options exist that most people don't realize just how versatile my clothing is.

Edit: I gave up on financial goals in late 2011 after some huge financial and artistic wins... money shouldn't be taken too seriously. For the record, they were all basically on track, some were being massively exceeded, others were a bit behind schedule, but were all happening.

I set my next 10 years of financial goals on June 28th. That was exactly a month ago.